You Make My Dreams Come True: We Rehearse

We rushed to the church and arrived right on time. We had several bridal party members who were late (aside from J, David's older brother and best man who had had to drive all the way across town to shower and change and then drive back) so we were going to get started late. I'm not sure why, but I honestly just didn't care. I stood there talking with my friends and family who had gotten into town and I let it go. So we'd run a little late.  What's the big deal? My friend's dad who is the pastor of the church we used asked me if I'd taken medication or something - He said I was the calmest bride he'd ever seen! I think it was more the fact that I was a ball of emotions and wasn't sure exactly how to act. I was so happy to see everyone, so nervous about everything working out, so anxious to have everyone looking at me the next day, and so EXCITED to finally be married and see all of my work come to fruition!

I'm a crier, and my first cry of the weekend came when our lovely musicians started practicing their songs. They sounded SO good and it finally hit me that this was really happening. I'd imagined those songs being played at our wedding for over a year, and now they were preparing to preform them the next day. My MOH A cried right along with me. 

Once everyone had finally arrived we started the rehearsal. Our 'coordinator' led the whole thing. Instead of practicing the processional first, she arranged us on the stage instead. I hadn't heard of this before, but it made so much more sense. We were able to make sure everything looked good and was evenly spaced and I was able to come down and look to make sure I liked it (I'm a big symmetrical person - I can't stand when something is 'off'). Then everyone knew where exactly they were walking to, so practicing the processional went much smoother. 

I don't have any pictures of the actual rehearsal, and everything went pretty smoothly (including the timing of the processional song which we were worried about!) so I don't have much else to add. We finished pretty quickly and got to go eat! We catered in BBQ and held the rehearsal dinner at the church, which ended up working out really well. We had the food set up buffet style, with the advice cards and platter I wanted everyone to sign in front of the food.

We gave out gifts to our bridal party, our ushers, our parents, our officiant, our musicians, and Kay, our coordinator. I didn't really ever blog about most of those gifts (aside from my gifts for the girls) but David got his two brothers and my brother a KU related gift, his two other groomsmen a gift certificate for golfing on him, and his jr groomsman (my nephew) a day at Worlds of Fun, which is an amusement park in KC similar to Six Flags. I wish I had pictures of our gifts for the flower girls and ring bearer, but for the girls I did bags with their initials on them that they can use as purses or to take to church, handpainted picture frames with their names on them, and bracelets. For our ring bearer I did a little blue backpack with his initial embroidered on it. When we saw them a few weeks ago he had it with him to take to church! :) Our ushers each got a KU cooler, our parents got gift cards to their favorite resturaunts, big picture frames, and will eventually get albums when I get around to making them. For our officiant, musicians, and coordinator we did cards with Visa gift cards in them. 

After everyone was finished eating and the gifts were given out, most of our out of town guests went ahead and left, and we finished decorating by laying down the aisle runner, pinning it, and scattering the rose petals. Like I mentioned before, if you're a bit OCD like me and would prefer to lay your aisle runner yourself and not leave it up to your ushers, it worked perfectly to lay it and then pin it every few feet (on alternating sides) with corsage pins. It stayed in place perfectly even after the grandparents, parents, and bridal party walked down it. 

Heading back to the sanctuary - Can you see the cast on David's brother's nose? Yea, one of his best men broke his nose the week before the wedding and had surgery on Thursday. He ended up pulling the cast off before Saturday afternoon because he didn't want it in pictures. Poor thing.

MOH A, me, BM S, and BM M - Can you tell how exhausted MOH A and I were?

Soon everything was finished and ready to go! It was such a good feeling knowing everything was in its place. 

Love that my dad is in the middle of the D holding my niece - :)

David and I took a picture with our handiwork, and we were ready to go! We left knowing we'd be back the next day to get MARRIED! 

I hadn't gotten all of my stuff together yet for that night, the next day, and the wedding night, so I had to rush home and grab everything with BM S. I managed to remember everything I needed, thankfully. The guys were all staying at our house and getting ready there the next morning. BM S and I went to the hotel where we met Jr. BM K, MOH A, and BM M. They all spent the night with me the night before the wedding and I'm so glad! We made a midnight Wal-Mart run for the supplies for the flower girl tutus and it was nice having a little girls' night my last night as an unmarried lady. I ended up falling asleep around 1:30 AM and got a few good hours of sleep before one of the biggest days of my life.

How did your rehearsal dinner go? Where did you spend the night before the wedding? Who were you with?

Tip #3: Have your coordinator put everyone in their spots first thing and then practice the recessional before practicing the processional. It's easier to practice the processional when everyone knows where they're going! 

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.